Chapter 63: Plans and Progress

Glenn Brunson POV:

When I teleported back to Amy’s room I went invisible, hoping not to startle her.

She was in her living room, sitting on a loveseat, deep in thought. I could tell by the way her eyes were moving around, that beautiful mind of hers had to be going a thousand miles an hour.

I really wished I could read her mind, to know what she was thinking. I’ve been meaning to have someone like Maggie or maybe Linda help me figure out how to do that, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. However, the more I tried to think about Amy and what she had been thinking about, slowly but surely I felt her thoughts come into my head.

It was amazing! I realized that everything she’d ever believed, she was now questioning. She even wondered if Monty, Maggie, Lonnie and I were some kind of gods.

That’s why, quietly, just above a whisper, I said, “No Amy, we’re all just human, the same as you!”

Suddenly, her eyes brightened and she looked all around the room. Then I realized she just thought to herself, ’Am I dreaming?’ Because my words seemed to answer what she’d just been thinking about.

I decided to continue this line of communication by quietly saying, “No sweetheart, you’re not dreaming. I’m here, standing right in front of you, even though you can’t see me. Please don’t be afraid because I’m going to appear to you now.”

Just as I dropped my invisibility she gasped for just a second before looking at me with wide eyes, “Oh my God! Glenn, were you just reading my mind?”

I smiled at her warmly, “Yes ... I was. I’m sorry if I weirded you out but I couldn’t just knock on your door since all the cameras think I’m still in here with you.” I chuckled, “I’m you sure you have a lot of questions you want to ask?”

She nodded unsurely, watching me closely now. She was thinking about whether or not she could still trust me.

I sighed, then said, “I sincerely hope you still trust me, Amy. I want to tell you everything you want to know, but I need to take you somewhere first. If you do still trust me, please take my hand?”

She only hesitated for a second before slowly reaching out and putting her hand in mine. I smiled at her and then asked, “I’d like to take you on a short trip that will hopefully answer a few of your questions. Are you ready?”

For the first time she smiled and giggled once, “I guess so ... Exactly where are we going?”

I smiled, “I’m going to take you so we can meet up with Monty, Maggie, Lonnie and this sweet lady we know named Ibera.”

Then I chuckled, adding, “Oh yeah, and if you’d like, you can see where we took Walter and Albert. Because, after today, no one’s ever gonna see either of them again!”

She gave a short head nod before saying, “I don’t think I ever want to see Walter again! Is Albert in trouble too?”

I nodded, “Oh yes, we discovered that he was planning to join Walter in paying you another visit tonight! Both of them are also in deep ‘do-do’ for selling patents without telling anyone about it. The two bastards were even planning on selling our formulas and keeping all the money for themselves!”

She looked amazed, but not disbelieving, “Wow! How did you guys discover all that so quickly?”

I just smiled at her and said, “I’ll explain everything in due time, Amy. But first, we need to go see our friends. And oh, before you ask, we’re going into a different dimension! That’s why you need to hold my hand and be sure not to let go. Otherwise, there’s no telling where you might end up!”

She was wide-eyed and gasping when we ported up to see Ibera. Somehow, just seeing Maggie, Monte and Lonnie, sitting at a kitchen table, drinking coffee and soft drinks seemed to put her more at ease. She was looking all around, mesmerized to be in a sea of white with just this table and chairs seemingly floating in the air.

Lonnie got up just as two more chairs materialized right in front of us. He pulled one out gallantly, then smiled, “Please be seated my dear. If there’s anything you’d care to drink, just think about what it is and it will appear right before you.”

I was sitting down right next to her just as what looked like a big chocolate milkshake, in a tall crystal, fountain glass, appeared right in front of her.

She gasped, then giggled, “Oh my! This is exactly what I was imagining! Even down to this glass that’s just like the ones at the soda fountain counter my dad used to take me to.”

Maggie grinned, “Welcome to ‘Ibera’s world’, Amy. Everything here works on psychic commands. You can literally have almost anything you can imagine.”

Amy’s gasp slowly turned into a grin, “This is amazing! Are you saying that I have psychic abilities now?”

I chuckled, “Not yet, sweetie. But since you are our guest at the current moment, that’s what gives you the ability to order anything you want. Tell me, before just now, did you ever believe in ESP, telepathy, or psychokinesis?”

She was grinning slightly as she was shaking her head, “No, but truthfully, I’ve always secretly wished it were possible. And now, after seeing everything I have today, I certainly believe it is.”

Then she looked at me with one raised eyebrow, “Glenn, why did you say ‘not yet’? Are you saying there’s some way I can learn ESP, telepathy and whatever that thing was you did to disappear so fast?”

I smiled at her, “You don’t miss a thing, do you? As a matter of fact, I was thinking of asking Miss Ibera if she would be so kind as to give you a few abilities, especially telepathy. Would you like that?”

She was looking all around at everyone, as they smiled at her, awaiting her response. She looked up at Ibera, the only one in the room she didn’t know, and asked, “Are you a God?”

Ibera tittered, shaking her head, “Oh no my dear, but I am also not a human. I am of the species known as Chaemarians. My people and I have been on your planet for almost 3500 of your years. One of the things that many of us can do is bestow psychic abilities on any humans that we feel are trustworthy and won’t use them for evil purposes. As you might’ve guessed, everyone here, right now does indeed have many psychic abilities. So, can you be trusted?” She asked with a slight smirk, that turned into a smile as Amy seemed to be deep in thought.

Amy just looked at me in wonder. I knew that she was thinking just how to answer that question, without seeming to be presumptuous.

I put my arm around her and smiled at Ibera, “I’ll vouch for her honesty, Ibera. Even though I don’t know her that well yet, I do believe she doesn’t have an evil bone in her body. Therefore, maybe you could give her at least telepathy, invisibility/protective bubble and teleportation for now?”

Amy hugged my arm while looking at me lovingly. Then she looked at Ibera, “What do I have to do, Ms. Ibera?”

Ibera smiled at her, “Just believe, my dear. Oh, and maybe a hug might be nice?”

Amy literally jumped out of her seat and ran over to give Ibera a hug.

Ibera kissed her on the forehead, then said, “You now have telepathy, protective bubble and the ability to teleport yourself to anywhere you’ve ever been or to anyone you know or have even seen before. I am also giving you psychokinesis, but, you’re going to need to learn how to use it. Any of your four friends here are more than qualified to be your instructor. So, just close your eyes and look for the little icons in your head so we can all say hi to you in our own special way!”

Amy’s eyes lit up in wonder as everyone here silently welcomed her to our little club.

Maggie told her that once we got back home, there would be many more people she would also be able to communicate with telepathically. Ibera also made her understand that this came with the ‘Confidentiality Consequence’ which she also explained in detail. Amy seemed to understand fully and was glad her newfound abilities would be kept secret.

We took a while at this point, to tell her all about our spaceship, and a little background on our family. That look of wonder, from before, seemed to overwhelm her once again. Like me, she had to ask when she might get the opportunity to ride in Lonnie’s spaceship. We assured her that was on the agenda in the not-too-distant future.

Finally, Monte mentioned that we should probably get back since he had to tell Peter and Nomar not to be expecting Walter and Albert to be coming back. It wasn’t clear exactly what he was going to say, telling us not to worry about it, that he would take care of it.

That’s when Amy started looking all around and I asked her, “Whatcha looking for, sweetie?”

She sighed, “I was just wondering where Walter and Albert were hiding?”

Ibera smiled, “Oh, they’re up here, in my own little jail cell. The reason you don’t see them is they’re in a slightly different dimensional space than we are.” She giggled, “that’s to make sure they don’t escape to bother anyone. Would you like to see them?”

Amy looked at all of us, before taking a deep breath, “Well, Glenn said nobody’s probably ever going to see them again. And, I do have a couple questions I want to ask Walter, if nobody minds?”

Maggie nodded, “We don’t mind, Amy. We just didn’t know how you might feel about seeing them again.”

“Will all of you come with me?”

We all nodded. Then I said, “Absolutely. I suppose you want to get some closure?”

She frowned and shook her head, “I don’t know about closure, but I do want to know just what the heck kind of deal he made with my parents! I haven’t seen nor heard from them since I’ve been here. Not that I’ve seen much of them from the time I turned 12 and went into advanced, accelerated classes.” She finished, sadly.

I think all of us knew there was much more to this story. I just hoped that what she was about to learn wouldn’t be too depressing. It was obvious, the light, happy mood she had been in had suddenly gone very dark.

She anxiously sought out my hand just before Ibera ported us into her jail dimension. The two of them were sitting on the floor with their pencil and paper, figuring out what items they were going to request. They were startled by our sudden appearance and jumped to their feet.

Ibera’s demeanor also changed to one of an angry mother when she told them, “Amy wants to ask you guys some questions. If you want anything on those lists that you’re making out, I highly suggest you answer every one of her questions. Walter, what you put this girl through his incomprehensible.” She paused and looked at Amy with a wink, “Go ahead sweetie, ask them anything you want. And trust me, if either of them even thinks about lying to you, I’m going to rip out their tongues!”

It was hard not to laugh at the suddenly terrified looks on both of their faces. Even Amy suppressed a giggle as she looked up at Ibera and gave her a hug.

“Thank you Ibera. Now, Walter, I just want to know exactly what kind of deal you made with my parents. I want to know everything, so don’t leave anything out!”

It seemed that that was the last thing he ever expected to be asked. He nervously looked at Albert before saying, “I, um ... Are you sure you want to hear this?”

Amy steeled herself and said, almost snippily, “Yes I do! Just remember what Ibera told you. I’d hate to see you go for the rest your life trying to talk with no tongue!”

Walter took one last look at Albert before sighing deeply then said, “All right, I just don’t know where to begin.” He hesitated before Ibera gave them ‘the look’.

Then he continued, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but when I talked to them when you first came here I got the distinct impression they just wanted to get rid of you. Their first question to me wasn’t what you would be doing, only how much we were willing to pay them for your services. Peter and Nomar had already started taking you around to show you the place so they didn’t hear any of this. I’d heard about you through the grapevine from MIT. I could see how your supreme intelligence and schooling might help us with what we needed to do around here. However, from the minute I saw you all I could think about was getting into your panties. I have to say, your mother is a real piece of fucking work. It’s like the bitch could read my fucking mind and made it clear if my price was right she’d make it so I could do anything I wanted with you. They essentially sold you to me for the nice round figure of $250,000. Since Albert and I had already sold a few patents I wrote your parents a check for that amount and they signed over custody to me. I’m sure you remember the last thing they said to you was that you needed to do anything I told you to. Do you realize, they never even left a forwarding address? Your mother simply put my check into her bra, then it was like the two of them couldn’t get out of there fast enough.”

I was stunned, but that was nothing compared to poor Amy’s reaction. I put my arm around her as she silently wept, with her head buried into my chest.

When I looked up at Walter I noticed the bastard was smirking. I just wanted to punch his fucking lights out, when all of a sudden he went flying across his cell, his face now a bloodied mess.

I was shocked when Lonnie started laughing and exclaimed, “Talk about déjà vu!”

I asked, “Lonnie, did you do that?”

While trying to stop laughing he was shaking his head, “Oh no my friend, I think you did! Tell me, were you just thinking you wanted to punch that smirk off his face?”

I know my mouth was open as I gasped, “That’s exactly what I was thinking!”

Lonnie was now holding his sides and said, “You must have forgotten that this place works on psychic commands! Something very similar to this happened the second day all of us were up here. This bitch, named Lola, was cursing at Ibera and JB said somebody ought to tape her mouth shut and the next thing anyone knew, it was like she had an entire roll of duct tape around her face. Like you, he couldn’t believe that he was the one who caused that to happen.”

Amy wiped her tears away, but seemed to be captivated by Lonnie’s story. She asked Ibera if Walter had been telling the truth.

Ibera sadly told her that he had.

Somehow, Ibera managed to throw Walter a towel so he could wipe off his face and try to cover his bleeding nose. Amy’s sorrow seemed to turn into anger as she spat, “Are you saying that you have never heard from her again?”

Walter held one hand up and was shaking his head, “Hear, no, but ... I did get a letter from them, postmarked from the Cayman Islands about a month ago. They wanted more money! I guess they figured they hadn’t asked for enough the first time. I sent them another check for $250,000 and told them that was it and not to ever bother me for any more. I noticed they cashed it about two weeks ago. I got the impression this might be an ongoing deal which is why I convinced Albert that we needed to get one last score and get the hell out of Dodge.”

I could tell the bastard wanted to say more but wisely bit his tongue. I could also sense that Amy was discovering things about her parents that she might have surmised previously, but not knowing for sure until now. Perhaps this sweet naïve girl wasn’t so naïve after all? The next question cut to the heart of that.

While looking at Walter with a steely glare she asked, “Okay Walter, just tell me, yes or no, since they left me in your clutches, has either of my parents ever once asked how I was doing?”

The bastard started to smirk but seeing the way we were all staring daggers at him, wiped that off his face before saying, glumly, “No. As a matter of fact, even that first day I met them, I got the sense they simply wanted you out of their hair.”

I felt Amy’s body lose all the tension it had built up. I didn’t have to read her mind to know how lost she felt right now. I squeezed her shoulder and told her, silently, how sorry I felt for her.

She came back, “I guess I’ve known this or partly suspected it for the last few years. Thinking back to when I was much younger, I can’t even remember a time when either of my parents ever told me they loved me. Every time, after they shuffled me off to a new school, they always made a point to force the school to provide me a bodyguard. And the many times I would ask my bodyguard if I could call my parents, the answer was always the same. That they were out of town and couldn’t be reached by phone. Many times, they didn’t even come to visit me on Christmas or my birthday. I just kept telling myself it was because they were too busy. Thank God I turn 18 next week. Hopefully they won’t come back until then and I can finally be done with them. This is the first time, however, that I’ve truly felt alone. And that ... Nobody loves me.”

I gently turned her to face me and silently told her, “You’re wrong about that Amy. I love you! And if you look around at all my friends, you’ll see that they care about you too.”

She looked up at me with moist eyes, “Oh Glenn, you don’t know how desperately I want to believe that! Please tell me that you will never leave me?”

Now I had damp eyes too, “Oh Amy, I do love you! As far as I’m concerned, I’m not going to let you out of my sight until you tell me you want me to.”

She hugged me even tighter, “I can’t honestly say I even know what love is. But ... if it’s what I feel in my heart right now, then ... I think I love you too!”

When I looked, all three of my friends wore emotional expressions, answering my unasked question if they’d heard our conversation. I really appreciated that they didn’t say anything to disrupt the moment that Amy and I had.

I was going to have to tell her, however, that next time to make sure she just saw our two icons in her head.

Walter and Albert, however, both looked confused and nonplussed at our sudden silence. And of course, Walter just had to prove he was still an asshole.

“What the hell’s going on? The little bitch’s story is not that tragic, for Christ sake! She’s not the first child genius that had to deal with crappy parents. My old man was dumb as a fucking rock and slapped the shit out me every time I said anything that he didn’t understand. That’s why, by the time I was six I quit talking to the bastard!”

I had to bite back a chuckle when Amy just looked at him, stone-faced and said, “If you really want to know, we were having a telepathic conversation! It’s too bad you aren’t qualified to participate, Walter, you arrogant bastard!”

Maggie and Lonnie liked to bust a gut they started laughing so hard.

Albert smacked Walter on the shoulder just before Walter said, “You’re bullshitting me, right? No way you picked up telepathy that quickly! After what just happened today, I don’t doubt that those other four could do it, but I damn sure know you didn’t have any telepathic abilities before right now!”

Amy just grinned at him evilly, “You’re right! Till about 20 minutes ago I wasn’t sure I even believed in telepathy. Then, my friend Glenn brought me up here to see Miss Ibera.” She smiled sweetly at Ibera who winked back at her before Amy continued, “But, she gave me that ability and it only took about 30 seconds for me to figure out how to use it. It’s too damn bad for you and Albert that she only gives it to good people!”

And that little speech did nothing to squelch Maggie and Lonnie’s laughter. Even Monte and I were snickering at this point.

Monte, however, cleared his throat and then announced, “You know, I should take away one of your duffel bags worth of stuff for the way you’ve treated Amy. And just so you know, everything she just told you is true. But I guess, that’ll just be one more thing you can commiserate with Mister Chen about. Now, we need to get some work done so Ibera and I can send you guys to the Penance Planet. I’m giving you exactly 30 minutes to finish your lists and then I’m going to come back here so Ibera can send you on your way.”

Lonnie asked, “Are you planning to give these clowns a boat, like you gave us?”

It was humorous how Walter’s eyes lit up at the sound of that only to be crushed when Monte chuckled, “Oh hell no! The unfortunate thing about sending them to Chen is that fool knows where everything is located. I don’t want them escaping that island anytime soon.”

Then, Amy asked one last question, “Oh yeah, what have you done with all my pay? Please tell me it’s not going to my parents!?”

Walter sighed, “No, it goes in an account that I am the main signer on. It’s in both our names, since it had to be, but until you turn 21, I have total control of it.”

Monte shook his head, “Don’t worry Amy, I’ll have that fixed by this afternoon! If I have to, can I put it in Glenn’s name with YOU as the primary signer?”

Amy smiled at me, nodding, “Yes! I trust Glenn completely! Thank you. Then, maybe Glenn can finally take me shopping? Walter hasn’t gotten me anything, always saying he didn’t have any money!”

Monte huffed, “Well, since you’ve been here for more than six months, there should be over $100,000 in it by now! I’ll make sure there is and that nobody but you and Glenn can get their hands on it. And that includes your parents, unless you want them to.”

Amy scoffed, “No, just me and Glenn, please? Thank you.”

With that we reconvened in Ibera’s kitchen just prior to teleporting back to Amy’s room.

Max’s POV: 3 days later...

Things for me are starting to settle down into a bit of a routine.

With many of my friends, however, things have become very interesting.

Both Juules and Braitak have been staying in D.C. with Rex and Jeremy for the last few days, trying to figure out the deal with the KGB. Monte’s been here a couple times letting us know that Lonnie is getting along swimmingly with Glenn and his new job. It seems that Lonnie is also spending most nights with that beautiful brunette, Melody, on her superyacht. And he has reported that Lucy appears to be having the time of her life, learning her new job and getting to know the crew.